Welcome to the first in a series of Compete Caribbean Program (CCP) news briefs which will be emailed to you monthly

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The CCP is a new and innovative approach to private sector development. It collaborates with Governments and Private Sector groups to improve competitiveness and economic growth across 15 beneficiary countries in the Caribbean region.

The five year program provides technical assistance grants and investment funding to support productive development policies, business climate reforms, clustering initiatives and Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) development activities.

The US$ 40 million program is jointly funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID).

The program was also developed jointly by these partners, leveraging on each institution's expertise and experience in the field.

CGF Successfully Launches

Senior Members of IDB, CCP, DFID and CIDA

after the signing of the CGF MOU.

The University of the West Indies hosted the launch of the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF) on June 18th & 19th, 2012, a new regional platform for dialogue to foster higher levels of economic growth with opportunities for all in the region.

More than 150 participants from the public and private sectors, academia, youth, and civil society joined the conference to discuss the key factors that have the greatest potential to contribute to increased growth in the region.

Additionally, it engaged a broad group of stakeholders, reaching beyond the traditional stakeholders (the public sector and academia) to other critical players in the dialogue on economic growth including the private sector, the youth, civil society and the Caribbean Diaspora.

The CGF is a partnership between the World Bank, the

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), with support from the United Kingdom's Department For International Development (DFID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The two-day conference focused on competitiveness, innovation and entrepreneurship, and explored a broad range of issues such as how energy services can be improved in the Caribbean, what is needed to build a skilled labor market, how Caribbean governments can develop robust innovation economies, and practical steps for micro, small and medium enterprises to get improved access to finance.

The CGF is designed to provide a platform for dialogue around the growth challenge with a view to identifying solutions that inspire action.

New Leadership Team

From July 1, 2012, CCP will fall under a new

Inter-American Development Bank Division (IDB) and will also be led by a new team.

At the helm of the new leadership team is Flora Painter who is the new Chairman of the CCP and Chief of the Competitiveness and Innovation (CTI) Division of the IDB. She has over 20 years experience in the field of economic development, focusing on private sector development.

The new Executive Director (a.i.) of the CCP is Claudia Stevenson. Her areas of expertise include public-private partnerships, development of institutional and regulatory frameworks to improve the business climate and access to finance, project finance, promotion of clusters and supply chains, logistics and support to small and medium enterprises.

Newly appointed CCP Operations Coordinator is Michael Hennessey who brings ten years professional experience including four years at the IDB to his new role. Before accepting the job at the CCP, he worked as the Country Coordinator for Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago at the Caribbean Country Department.

Former Chairman of the CCP, Kurt Focke has moved on to IDB's Divisional Chief Retirement Plans, HRD/SRP.

Meanwhile, former Executive Director of the CCP, Jose Jorge Saavedra who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the the CCP has assumed the new role of IDB's Advisor in the Country Department for Central America and Mexico to coordinate the Central America Integration Program (Proyecto Mesoamerica).

Also leaving the team is one of CCP's closest collabarators - DFID's Private Sector Advisor, Jan Wimaladharma - who will be pursuing a new overseas assignment.

The CCP Team wishes Kurt, JJ and Jan all the very best in their future endeavours.

CCP & Branson Centre Join Forces

CCP and The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship Caribbean has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to partner and establish the Branson Centre Compete Caribbean Entrepreneurship Initiative.

The Initiative will combine the Centre's effective methodology of nurturing entrepreneurs into successful businesses and CCP's technical knowledge and expertise of the region to establish an innovative network that supports young Caribbean entrepreneurs.

The objective of the MOU is to formalize a non-exclusive framework of cooperation, explore the enhancement of entrepreneurial initiatives within the CARIFORUM region, foster cooperation between them in the area of entrepreneurshipdevelopment and competitiveness, under the CCP framework.

"Compete Caribbean is extremely excited to be partnering with the Branson Centre. We believe that the youth in the Caribbean region are an untapped resource which has tremendous potential to contribute positively to private sector development and ultimately economic growth. The partnership represents for us a chance to collaborate with global leaders in entrepreneurial business development, to bring to the region a new methodology on how to foster young entrepreneurs," said Claudia Stevenson Executive Director (a.i) Compete Caribbean.

Barbados will be hosting the Foromic 2012 taking place in Bridgetown from October 1-3, 2012

The event is organized by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Barbados.

The leading annual microfinance and microenterprise development event in Latin America and the Caribbean comes to the Caribbean for the first time in its 14-year history.